Finance Minister speaks about Fiscal Consolidation

It's official that government will not induce money into unproductive sectors in a bid to consolidate the fiscal deficit which will touch 6.8% of Gross Domestic Product(GDP) for this financial year finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

India's fiscal deficit is projected to swell to a record 6.8 percent of gross domestic product in the fiscal year 2009/10 (April-March) that has to be funded by a record high borrowing of 4.51 trillion rupees ($95 billion). that's a whopping amount of borrowing.

A report from finance ministery said that - "Government will continue to take necessary measures to moderate inflation, prune unproductive expenditure and closely monitor FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) targets," so lets see whether these statements turn to reality or it's just an answer to opposition questions in parliament.

Govt of India awaits more then half of fiscal deficit from disputes

Believe it or not the government is yet to receive over Rs one trillion in taxes from corporate and other entities and add to it other arrears worth about Rs 47,000 crore, the total outstanding equals more than half of the total revenue deficit this year.

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At about Rs 150,000 crore, the unrealised tax and non-tax revenue is 53 per cent of the total revenue deficit of over Rs 282,000 crore projected by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget for 2009-10.

The arrears outstanding at the end of reporting year 2007 -08 pertain to a period of up to ten years or more and also include interests from state governments and PSUs.

In totality, the arrears that the government is still awaiting are held up in litigation, or are due for some other reasons. If realised, they could have substantially reduced the Centre's borrowings, pegged at over Rs 4,00,000 crore for the current fiscal.

Bulk of the tax arrears is caught under disputes and amounts to over Rs 64,000 crore, while the amounts not under dispute total at about Rs 40,000 crore also include cases pending for adjudication.

Economy Updates - Fiscal deficit at 7.8 pc of GDP

Indian Economy Updates - Including bonds issued to oil and fertiliser companies, the government's fiscal deficit for the year to March is estimated at 4.22 trillion rupees ($84 billion), the minister of state for finance said on Thursday. That equates to a total federal fiscal gap of 7.8 percent of gross domestic product.

Last week, the finance minister said in the budget speech the federal fiscal deficit would rise to 3.27 trillion rupees, or 6 percent of GDP, this financial year, but that did not include the off-balance sheet oil and fertiliser bonds.

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In a written reply to parliament, Pawan Kumar Bansal said a rise in global oil and food prices had lifted the government's subsidy bill, while stimulus packages to shield the economy from the global slump had raised expenditure.

"The fiscal deficit including the liability on account of securities issued during the year to oil marketing companies and fertiliser companies is (4.22 trillion) rupees," he said.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on the country's long-term sovereign credit rating to negative from stable projecting the country's deficit, including off-budget items such as oil and fertiliser bonds, to increase to 11.4 percent in 2008/09, up from 5.7 percent in the previous year.

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